Method and apparatus for identifying a physical iot device

ABSTRACT

The disclosure is related to identifying an Internet of Things (IoT) device with an image of the IoT device. A user device captures the image of the IoT device, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at least a portion of an environment around the IoT device, and transmits the image from the user device to the IoT device, wherein the IoT device associates the image with information identifying the IoT device. The IoT device receives the image of the IoT device from the user device, stores the image of the IoT device, and associates the image of the IoT device with information identifying the IoT device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application for patent claims the benefit of ProvisionalApplication No. 61/904,338, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FORIDENTIFYING A PHYSICAL IOT DEVICE,” filed Nov. 14, 2013, which isassigned to the assignee hereof and hereby expressly incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure is related to identifying a physical IoT device.

BACKGROUND

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computers and computernetworks that use a standard Internet protocol suite (e.g., theTransmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP)) tocommunicate with each other. The Internet of Things (IoT) is based onthe idea that everyday objects, not just computers and computernetworks, can be readable, recognizable, locatable, addressable, andcontrollable via an IoT communications network (e.g., an ad-hoc systemor the Internet).

A number of market trends are driving development of IoT devices. Forexample, increasing energy costs are driving governments' strategicinvestments in smart grids and support for future consumption, such asfor electric vehicles and public charging stations. Increasing healthcare costs and aging populations are driving development forremote/connected health care and fitness services. A technologicalrevolution in the home is driving development for new “smart” services,including consolidation by service providers marketing ‘N’ play (e.g.,data, voice, video, security, energy management, etc.) and expandinghome networks. Buildings are getting smarter and more convenient as ameans to reduce operational costs for enterprise facilities.

There are a number of key applications for the IoT. For example, in thearea of smart grids and energy management, utility companies canoptimize delivery of energy to homes and businesses while customers canbetter manage energy usage. In the area of home and building automation,smart homes and buildings can have centralized control over virtuallyany device or system in the home or office, from appliances to plug-inelectric vehicle (PEV) security systems. In the field of asset tracking,enterprises, hospitals, factories, and other large organizations canaccurately track the locations of high-value equipment, patients,vehicles, and so on. In the area of health and wellness, doctors canremotely monitor patients' health while people can track the progress offitness routines.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary relating to one or moreaspects and/or embodiments disclosed herein. As such, the followingsummary should not be considered an extensive overview relating to allcontemplated aspects and/or embodiments, nor should the followingsummary be regarded to identify key or critical elements relating to allcontemplated aspects and/or embodiments or to delineate the scopeassociated with any particular aspect and/or embodiment. Accordingly,the following summary has the sole purpose to present certain conceptsrelating to one or more aspects and/or embodiments disclosed herein in asimplified form to precede the detailed description presented below.

The disclosure is related to identifying an Internet of Things (IoT)device with an image of the IoT device. A method for identifying an IoTdevice with an image of the IoT device includes capturing, by a userdevice, the image of the IoT device, wherein the image of the IoT deviceincludes at least a portion of an environment around the IoT device, andtransmitting the image from the user device to the IoT device, whereinthe IoT device associates the image with information identifying the IoTdevice.

A method for identifying an IoT device with an image of the IoT deviceincludes receiving, by the IoT device, the image of the IoT device froma user device, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at least aportion of an environment around the IoT device, storing the image ofthe IoT device, and associating the image of the IoT device withinformation identifying the IoT device.

An apparatus for identifying an IoT device with an image of the IoTdevice includes logic configured to capture, by a user device, the imageof the IoT device, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at leasta portion of an environment around the IoT device, and logic configuredto transmit the image from the user device to the IoT device, whereinthe IoT device associates the image with information identifying the IoTdevice.

An apparatus for identifying an IoT device with an image of the IoTdevice includes logic configured to receive, by the IoT device, theimage of the IoT device from a user device, wherein the image of the IoTdevice includes at least a portion of an environment around the IoTdevice, logic configured to store the image of the IoT device, and logicconfigured to associate the image of the IoT device with informationidentifying the IoT device.

An apparatus for identifying an IoT device with an image of the IoTdevice includes means for capturing, by a user device, the image of theIoT device, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at least aportion of an environment around the IoT device, and means fortransmitting the image from the user device to the IoT device, whereinthe IoT device associates the image with information identifying the IoTdevice.

An apparatus for identifying an IoT device with an image of the IoTdevice includes means for receiving, by the IoT device, the image of theIoT device from a user device, wherein the image of the IoT deviceincludes at least a portion of an environment around the IoT device,means for storing the image of the IoT device, and means for associatingthe image of the IoT device with information identifying the IoT device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for identifying an IoT devicewith an image of the IoT device includes at least one instruction tocapture, by a user device, the image of the IoT device, wherein theimage of the IoT device includes at least a portion of an environmentaround the IoT device, and at least one instruction to transmit theimage from the user device to the IoT device, wherein the IoT deviceassociates the image with information identifying the IoT device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for identifying an IoT devicewith an image of the IoT device includes at least one instruction toreceive, by the IoT device, the image of the IoT device from a userdevice, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at least a portionof an environment around the IoT device, at least one instruction tostore the image of the IoT device, and at least one instruction toassociate the image of the IoT device with information identifying theIoT device.

Other objects and advantages associated with the mechanisms disclosedherein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on theaccompanying drawings and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of aspects of the disclosure and many ofthe attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the samebecomes better understood by reference to the following detaileddescription when considered in connection with the accompanying drawingswhich are presented solely for illustration and not limitation of thedisclosure, and in which:

FIG. 1A illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 1B illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with another aspect of thedisclosure.

FIG. 1C illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 1D illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 1E illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary Internet of Things (IoT) device inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure, while FIG. 2B illustrates anexemplary passive IoT device in accordance with aspects of thedisclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates a communication device that includes logic configuredto perform functionality in accordance with an aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary server according to various aspects ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates a wireless communication network that may supportdiscoverable peer-to-peer (P2P) services, in accordance with one aspectof the disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary environment in which discoverable P2Pservices may be used to establish a proximity-based distributed bus overwhich various devices may communicate, in accordance with one aspect ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary message sequence in which discoverableP2P services may be used to establish a proximity-based distributed busover which various devices may communicate, in accordance with oneaspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary system architecture in whichdiscoverable P2P services may be used to allow remote onboarding of aheadless devices over a Wi-Fi network, in accordance with one aspect ofthe disclosure.

FIGS. 9A-B illustrate exemplary message sequences in which discoverableP2P services may be used to allow remote onboarding of headless devicesover a Wi-Fi network, in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary method in which an onboarder device mayuse discoverable P2P services to remotely onboard an onboardee deviceover a Wi-Fi network, in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary method in which an onboardee device mayuse discoverable P2P services to remotely onboard over a Wi-Fi network,in accordance with one aspect of the disclosure.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary flow for identifying an onboardeedevice with an image of the onboardee device.

FIGS. 13-14 illustrate exemplary flows for identifying an IoT devicewith an image of the IoT device according to an aspect of thedisclosure.

FIGS. 15-16 are simplified block diagrams of several sample aspects ofapparatuses configured to support communication as taught herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The disclosure is related to identifying an Internet of Things (IoT)device with an image of the IoT device. A user device captures the imageof the IoT device, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at leasta portion of an environment around the IoT device, and transmits theimage from the user device to the IoT device, wherein the IoT deviceassociates the image with information identifying the IoT device. TheIoT device receives the image of the IoT device from the user device,stores the image of the IoT device, and associates the image of the IoTdevice with information identifying the IoT device.

These and other aspects are disclosed in the following description andrelated drawings to show specific examples relating to exemplaryembodiments of a identifying a physical IoT device. Alternateembodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the pertinent art uponreading this disclosure, and may be constructed and practiced withoutdeparting from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. Additionally,well-known elements will not be described in detail or may be omitted soas to not obscure the relevant details of the aspects and embodimentsdisclosed herein.

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments. Likewise, the term “embodiments”does not require that all embodiments include the discussed feature,advantage or mode of operation.

The terminology used herein describes particular embodiments only andshould not be construed to limit any embodiments disclosed herein. Asused herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises,”“comprising,” “includes,” and/or “including,” when used herein, specifythe presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

Further, many aspects are described in terms of sequences of actions tobe performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will berecognized that various actions described herein can be performed byspecific circuits (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit(ASIC)), by program instructions being executed by one or moreprocessors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, these sequence ofactions described herein can be considered to be embodied entirelywithin any form of computer readable storage medium having storedtherein a corresponding set of computer instructions that upon executionwould cause an associated processor to perform the functionalitydescribed herein. Thus, the various aspects of the disclosure may beembodied in a number of different forms, all of which have beencontemplated to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Inaddition, for each of the aspects described herein, the correspondingform of any such aspects may be described herein as, for example, “logicconfigured to” perform the described action.

As used herein, the term “Internet of Things device” (or “IoT device”)may refer to any object (e.g., an appliance, a sensor, etc.) that has anaddressable interface (e.g., an Internet protocol (IP) address, aBluetooth identifier (ID), a near-field communication (NFC) ID, etc.)and can transmit information to one or more other devices over a wiredor wireless connection. An IoT device may have a passive communicationinterface, such as a quick response (QR) code, a radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) tag, an NFC tag, or the like, or an activecommunication interface, such as a modem, a transceiver, atransmitter-receiver, or the like. An IoT device can have a particularset of attributes (e.g., a device state or status, such as whether theIoT device is on or off, open or closed, idle or active, available fortask execution or busy, and so on, a cooling or heating function, anenvironmental monitoring or recording function, a light-emittingfunction, a sound-emitting function, etc.) that can be embedded inand/or controlled/monitored by a central processing unit (CPU),microprocessor, ASIC, or the like, and configured for connection to anIoT network such as a local ad-hoc network or the Internet. For example,IoT devices may include, but are not limited to, refrigerators,toasters, ovens, microwaves, freezers, dishwashers, dishes, hand tools,clothes washers, clothes dryers, furnaces, air conditioners,thermostats, televisions, light fixtures, vacuum cleaners, sprinklers,electricity meters, gas meters, etc., so long as the devices areequipped with an addressable communications interface for communicatingwith the IoT network. IoT devices may also include cell phones, desktopcomputers, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), etc. Accordingly, the IoT network may be comprised ofa combination of “legacy” Internet-accessible devices (e.g., laptop ordesktop computers, cell phones, etc.) in addition to devices that do nottypically have Internet-connectivity (e.g., dishwashers, etc.).

FIG. 1A illustrates a high-level system architecture of a wirelesscommunications system 100A in accordance with an aspect of thedisclosure. The wireless communications system 100A contains a pluralityof IoT devices, which include a television 110, an outdoor airconditioning unit 112, a thermostat 114, a refrigerator 116, and awasher and dryer 118.

Referring to FIG. 1A, IoT devices 110-118 are configured to communicatewith an access network (e.g., an access point 125) over a physicalcommunications interface or layer, shown in FIG. 1A as air interface 108and a direct wired connection 109. The air interface 108 can comply witha wireless Internet protocol (IP), such as IEEE 802.11. Although FIG. 1Aillustrates IoT devices 110-118 communicating over the air interface 108and IoT device 118 communicating over the direct wired connection 109,each IoT device may communicate over a wired or wireless connection, orboth.

The Internet 175 includes a number of routing agents and processingagents (not shown in FIG. 1A for the sake of convenience). The Internet175 is a global system of interconnected computers and computer networksthat uses a standard Internet protocol suite (e.g., the TransmissionControl Protocol (TCP) and IP) to communicate among disparatedevices/networks. TCP/IP provides end-to-end connectivity specifying howdata should be formatted, addressed, transmitted, routed and received atthe destination.

In FIG. 1A, a computer 120, such as a desktop or personal computer (PC),is shown as connecting to the Internet 175 directly (e.g., over anEthernet connection or Wi-Fi or 802.11-based network). The computer 120may have a wired connection to the Internet 175, such as a directconnection to a modem or router, which, in an example, can correspond tothe access point 125 itself (e.g., for a Wi-Fi router with both wiredand wireless connectivity). Alternatively, rather than being connectedto the access point 125 and the Internet 175 over a wired connection,the computer 120 may be connected to the access point 125 over airinterface 108 or another wireless interface, and access the Internet 175over the air interface 108. Although illustrated as a desktop computer,computer 120 may be a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a PDA, a smartphone, or the like. The computer 120 may be an IoT device and/or containfunctionality to manage an IoT network/group, such as the network/groupof IoT devices 110-118.

The access point 125 may be connected to the Internet 175 via, forexample, an optical communication system, such as FiOS, a cable modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, or the like. The access point 125may communicate with IoT devices 110-120 and the Internet 175 using thestandard Internet protocols (e.g., TCP/IP).

Referring to FIG. 1A, an IoT server 170 is shown as connected to theInternet 175. The IoT server 170 can be implemented as a plurality ofstructurally separate servers, or alternately may correspond to a singleserver. In an aspect, the IoT server 170 is optional (as indicated bythe dotted line), and the group of IoT devices 110-120 may be apeer-to-peer (P2P) network. In such a case, the IoT devices 110-120 cancommunicate with each other directly over the air interface 108 and/orthe direct wired connection 109. Alternatively, or additionally, some orall of IoT devices 110-120 may be configured with a communicationinterface independent of air interface 108 and direct wired connection109. For example, if the air interface 108 corresponds to a Wi-Fiinterface, one or more of the IoT devices 110-120 may have Bluetooth orNFC interfaces for communicating directly with each other or otherBluetooth or NFC-enabled devices.

In a peer-to-peer network, service discovery schemes can multicast thepresence of nodes, their capabilities, and group membership. Thepeer-to-peer devices can establish associations and subsequentinteractions based on this information.

In accordance with an aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1B illustrates ahigh-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Bthat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100B shown in FIG. 1B may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications system 100A shown in FIG. 1A, which wasdescribed in greater detail above (e.g., various IoT devices, includinga television 110, outdoor air conditioning unit 112, thermostat 114,refrigerator 116, and washer and dryer 118, that are configured tocommunicate with an access point 125 over an air interface 108 and/or adirect wired connection 109, a computer 120 that directly connects tothe Internet 175 and/or connects to the Internet 175 through accesspoint 125, and an IoT server 170 accessible via the Internet 175, etc.).As such, for brevity and ease of description, various details relatingto certain components in the wireless communications system 100B shownin FIG. 1B may be omitted herein to the extent that the same or similardetails have already been provided above in relation to the wirelesscommunications system 100A illustrated in FIG. 1A.

Referring to FIG. 1B, the wireless communications system 100B mayinclude a supervisor device 130, which may alternatively be referred toas an IoT manager 130 or IoT manager device 130. As such, where thefollowing description uses the term “supervisor device” 130, thoseskilled in the art will appreciate that any references to an IoTmanager, group owner, or similar terminology may refer to the supervisordevice 130 or another physical or logical component that provides thesame or substantially similar functionality.

In one embodiment, the supervisor device 130 may generally observe,monitor, control, or otherwise manage the various other components inthe wireless communications system 100B. For example, the supervisordevice 130 can communicate with an access network (e.g., access point125) over air interface 108 and/or a direct wired connection 109 tomonitor or manage attributes, activities, or other states associatedwith the various IoT devices 110-120 in the wireless communicationssystem 100B. The supervisor device 130 may have a wired or wirelessconnection to the Internet 175 and optionally to the IoT server 170(shown as a dotted line). The supervisor device 130 may obtaininformation from the Internet 175 and/or the IoT server 170 that can beused to further monitor or manage attributes, activities, or otherstates associated with the various IoT devices 110-120. The supervisordevice 130 may be a standalone device or one of IoT devices 110-120,such as computer 120. The supervisor device 130 may be a physical deviceor a software application running on a physical device. The supervisordevice 130 may include a user interface that can output informationrelating to the monitored attributes, activities, or other statesassociated with the IoT devices 110-120 and receive input information tocontrol or otherwise manage the attributes, activities, or other statesassociated therewith. Accordingly, the supervisor device 130 maygenerally include various components and support various wired andwireless communication interfaces to observe, monitor, control, orotherwise manage the various components in the wireless communicationssystem 100B.

The wireless communications system 100B shown in FIG. 1B may include oneor more passive IoT devices 105 (in contrast to the active IoT devices110-120) that can be coupled to or otherwise made part of the wirelesscommunications system 100B. In general, the passive IoT devices 105 mayinclude barcoded devices, Bluetooth devices, radio frequency (RF)devices, RFID tagged devices, infrared (IR) devices, NFC tagged devices,or any other suitable device that can provide its identifier andattributes to another device when queried over a short range interface.Active IoT devices may detect, store, communicate, act on, and/or thelike, changes in attributes of passive IoT devices.

For example, passive IoT devices 105 may include a coffee cup and acontainer of orange juice that each have an RFID tag or barcode. Acabinet IoT device and the refrigerator IoT device 116 may each have anappropriate scanner or reader that can read the RFID tag or barcode todetect when the coffee cup and/or the container of orange juice passiveIoT devices 105 have been added or removed. In response to the cabinetIoT device detecting the removal of the coffee cup passive IoT device105 and the refrigerator IoT device 116 detecting the removal of thecontainer of orange juice passive IoT device, the supervisor device 130may receive one or more signals that relate to the activities detectedat the cabinet IoT device and the refrigerator IoT device 116. Thesupervisor device 130 may then infer that a user is drinking orangejuice from the coffee cup and/or likes to drink orange juice from acoffee cup.

Although the foregoing describes the passive IoT devices 105 as havingsome form of RFID tag or barcode communication interface, the passiveIoT devices 105 may include one or more devices or other physicalobjects that do not have such communication capabilities. For example,certain IoT devices may have appropriate scanner or reader mechanismsthat can detect shapes, sizes, colors, and/or other observable featuresassociated with the passive IoT devices 105 to identify the passive IoTdevices 105. In this manner, any suitable physical object maycommunicate its identity and attributes and become part of the wirelesscommunication system 100B and be observed, monitored, controlled, orotherwise managed with the supervisor device 130. Further, passive IoTdevices 105 may be coupled to or otherwise made part of the wirelesscommunications system 100A in FIG. 1A and observed, monitored,controlled, or otherwise managed in a substantially similar manner.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1C illustratesa high-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Cthat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100C shown in FIG. 1C may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications systems 100A and 100B shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B,respectively, which were described in greater detail above. As such, forbrevity and ease of description, various details relating to certaincomponents in the wireless communications system 100C shown in FIG. 1Cmay be omitted herein to the extent that the same or similar detailshave already been provided above in relation to the wirelesscommunications systems 100A and 100B illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B,respectively.

The communications system 100C shown in FIG. 1C illustrates exemplarypeer-to-peer communications between the IoT devices 110-118 and thesupervisor device 130. As shown in FIG. 1C, the supervisor device 130communicates with each of the IoT devices 110-118 over an IoT supervisorinterface. Further, IoT devices 110 and 114, IoT devices 112, 114, and116, and IoT devices 116 and 118, communicate directly with each other.

The IoT devices 110-118 make up an IoT group 160. An IoT device group160 is a group of locally connected IoT devices, such as the IoT devicesconnected to a user's home network. Although not shown, multiple IoTdevice groups may be connected to and/or communicate with each other viaan IoT SuperAgent 140 connected to the Internet 175. At a high level,the supervisor device 130 manages intra-group communications, while theIoT SuperAgent 140 can manage inter-group communications. Although shownas separate devices, the supervisor device 130 and the IoT SuperAgent140 may be, or reside on, the same device (e.g., a standalone device oran IoT device, such as computer 120 in FIG. 1A). Alternatively, the IoTSuperAgent 140 may correspond to or include the functionality of theaccess point 125. As yet another alternative, the IoT SuperAgent 140 maycorrespond to or include the functionality of an IoT server, such as IoTserver 170. The IoT SuperAgent 140 may encapsulate gateway functionality145.

Each IoT device 110-118 can treat the supervisor device 130 as a peerand transmit attribute/schema updates to the supervisor device 130. Whenan IoT device needs to communicate with another IoT device, it canrequest the pointer to that IoT device from the supervisor device 130and then communicate with the target IoT device as a peer. The IoTdevices 110-118 communicate with each other over a peer-to-peercommunication network using a common messaging protocol (CMP). As longas two IoT devices are CMP-enabled and connected over a commoncommunication transport, they can communicate with each other. In theprotocol stack, the CMP layer 154 is below the application layer 152 andabove the transport layer 156 and the physical layer 158.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1D illustratesa high-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Dthat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100D shown in FIG. 1D may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications systems 100A-C shown in FIGS. 1-C, respectively,which were described in greater detail above. As such, for brevity andease of description, various details relating to certain components inthe wireless communications system 100D shown in FIG. 1D may be omittedherein to the extent that the same or similar details have already beenprovided above in relation to the wireless communications systems 100A-Cillustrated in FIGS. 1A-C, respectively.

The Internet 175 is a “resource” that can be regulated using the conceptof the IoT. However, the Internet 175 is just one example of a resourcethat is regulated, and any resource could be regulated using the conceptof the IoT. Other resources that can be regulated include, but are notlimited to, electricity, gas, storage, security, and the like. An IoTdevice may be connected to the resource and thereby regulate it, or theresource could be regulated over the Internet 175. FIG. 1D illustratesseveral resources 180, such as natural gas, gasoline, hot water, andelectricity, wherein the resources 180 can be regulated in addition toand/or over the Internet 175.

IoT devices can communicate with each other to regulate their use of aresource 180. For example, IoT devices such as a toaster, a computer,and a hairdryer may communicate with each other over a Bluetoothcommunication interface to regulate their use of electricity (theresource 180). As another example, IoT devices such as a desktopcomputer, a telephone, and a tablet computer may communicate over aWi-Fi communication interface to regulate their access to the Internet175 (the resource 180). As yet another example, IoT devices such as astove, a clothes dryer, and a water heater may communicate over a Wi-Ficommunication interface to regulate their use of gas. Alternatively, oradditionally, each IoT device may be connected to an IoT server, such asIoT server 170, which has logic to regulate their use of the resource180 based on information received from the IoT devices.

In accordance with another aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 1E illustratesa high-level architecture of another wireless communications system 100Ethat contains a plurality of IoT devices. In general, the wirelesscommunications system 100E shown in FIG. 1E may include variouscomponents that are the same and/or substantially similar to thewireless communications systems 100A-D shown in FIGS. 1-D, respectively,which were described in greater detail above. As such, for brevity andease of description, various details relating to certain components inthe wireless communications system 100E shown in FIG. 1E may be omittedherein to the extent that the same or similar details have already beenprovided above in relation to the wireless communications systems 100A-Dillustrated in FIGS. 1A-D, respectively.

The communications system 100E includes two IoT device groups 160A and160B. Multiple IoT device groups may be connected to and/or communicatewith each other via an IoT SuperAgent connected to the Internet 175. Ata high level, an IoT SuperAgent may manage inter-group communicationsamong IoT device groups. For example, in FIG. 1E, the IoT device group160A includes IoT devices 116A, 122A, and 124A and an IoT SuperAgent140A, while IoT device group 160B includes IoT devices 116B, 122B, and124B and an IoT SuperAgent 140B. As such, the IoT SuperAgents 140A and140B may connect to the Internet 175 and communicate with each otherover the Internet 175 and/or communicate with each other directly tofacilitate communication between the IoT device groups 160A and 160B.Furthermore, although FIG. 1E illustrates two IoT device groups 160A and160B communicating with each other via IoT SuperAgents 140A and 140B,those skilled in the art will appreciate that any number of IoT devicegroups may suitably communicate with each other using IoT SuperAgents.

FIG. 2A illustrates a high-level example of an IoT device 200A inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure. While external appearancesand/or internal components can differ significantly among IoT devices,most IoT devices will have some sort of user interface, which maycomprise a display and a means for user input. IoT devices without auser interface can be communicated with remotely over a wired orwireless network, such as air interface 108 in FIGS. 1A-B.

As shown in FIG. 2A, in an example configuration for the IoT device200A, an external casing of IoT device 200A may be configured with adisplay 226, a power button 222, and two control buttons 224A and 224B,among other components, as is known in the art. The display 226 may be atouchscreen display, in which case the control buttons 224A and 224B maynot be necessary. While not shown explicitly as part of IoT device 200A,the IoT device 200A may include one or more external antennas and/or oneor more integrated antennas that are built into the external casing,including but not limited to Wi-Fi antennas, cellular antennas,satellite position system (SPS) antennas (e.g., global positioningsystem (GPS) antennas), and so on.

While internal components of IoT devices, such as IoT device 200A, canbe embodied with different hardware configurations, a basic high-levelconfiguration for internal hardware components is shown as platform 202in FIG. 2A. The platform 202 can receive and execute softwareapplications, data and/or commands transmitted over a network interface,such as air interface 108 in FIGS. 1A-B and/or a wired interface. Theplatform 202 can also independently execute locally stored applications.The platform 202 can include one or more transceivers 206 configured forwired and/or wireless communication (e.g., a Wi-Fi transceiver, aBluetooth transceiver, a cellular transceiver, a satellite transceiver,a GPS or SPS receiver, etc.) operably coupled to one or more processors208, such as a microcontroller, microprocessor, application specificintegrated circuit, digital signal processor (DSP), programmable logiccircuit, or other data processing device, which will be generallyreferred to as processor 208. The processor 208 can execute applicationprogramming instructions within a memory 212 of the IoT device. Thememory 212 can include one or more of read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), electrically erasable programmable ROM(EEPROM), flash cards, or any memory common to computer platforms. Oneor more input/output (I/O) interfaces 214 can be configured to allow theprocessor 208 to communicate with and control from various I/O devicessuch as the display 226, power button 222, control buttons 224A and 224Bas illustrated, and any other devices, such as sensors, actuators,relays, valves, switches, and the like associated with the IoT device200A. The platform 202 may also optionally include a camera 210, whichmay be a camera device integrated into IoT device 200A and/or a cameraapplication configured to allow a user to operate the camera device.

Accordingly, an aspect of the disclosure can include an IoT device(e.g., IoT device 200A) including the ability to perform the functionsdescribed herein. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art,the various logic elements can be embodied in discrete elements,software modules executed on a processor (e.g., processor 208) or anycombination of software and hardware to achieve the functionalitydisclosed herein. For example, transceiver 206, processor 208, memory212, and I/O interface 214 may all be used cooperatively to load, storeand execute the various functions disclosed herein and thus the logic toperform these functions may be distributed over various elements.Alternatively, the functionality could be incorporated into one discretecomponent. Therefore, the features of the IoT device 200A in FIG. 2A areto be considered merely illustrative and the disclosure is not limitedto the illustrated features or arrangement.

For example, where the IoT device 200A is configured to identify an IoTdevice with an image of the IoT device as described herein, the camera210 (when present) may be configured to capture the image of the IoTdevice and the transceiver 206 may be configured to transmit the imagefrom the IoT device 200A to the other IoT device. Alternatively, if theIoT device 200A is not equipped with a camera 210, the transceiver 206may be configured to receive the image of the IoT device from anotherdevice that is equipped with a camera. As another example, where the IoTdevice 200A is configured to be identified with an image of the IoTdevice 200A, the transceiver 206 may be configured to receive the imageof the IoT device 200A from another user device, the memory 212 may beconfigured to store the image of the IoT device 200A, and the processor208 and/or the memory 212 may be configured to associate the image ofthe IoT device 200A with information identifying the IoT device 200A.

FIG. 2B illustrates a high-level example of a passive IoT device 200B inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure. In general, the passive IoTdevice 200B shown in FIG. 2B may include various components that are thesame and/or substantially similar to the IoT device 200A shown in FIG.2A, which was described in greater detail above. As such, for brevityand ease of description, various details relating to certain componentsin the passive IoT device 200B shown in FIG. 2B may be omitted herein tothe extent that the same or similar details have already been providedabove in relation to the IoT device 200A illustrated in FIG. 2A.

The passive IoT device 200B shown in FIG. 2B may generally differ fromthe IoT device 200A shown in FIG. 2A in that the passive IoT device 200Bmay not have a processor, internal memory, or certain other components.Instead, in one embodiment, the passive IoT device 200B may only includean I/O interface 214 or other suitable mechanism that allows the passiveIoT device 200B to be observed, monitored, controlled, managed, orotherwise known within a controlled IoT network. For example, in oneembodiment, the I/O interface 214 associated with the passive IoT device200B may include a barcode, Bluetooth interface, radio frequency (RF)interface, RFID tag, IR interface, NFC interface, or any other suitableI/O interface that can provide an identifier and attributes associatedwith the passive IoT device 200B to another device when queried over ashort range interface (e.g., an active IoT device, such as IoT device200A, that can detect, store, communicate, act on, or otherwise processinformation relating to the attributes associated with the passive IoTdevice 200B).

Although the foregoing describes the passive IoT device 200B as havingsome form of RF, barcode, or other I/O interface 214, the passive IoTdevice 200B may comprise a device or other physical object that does nothave such an I/O interface 214. For example, certain IoT devices mayhave appropriate scanner or reader mechanisms that can detect shapes,sizes, colors, and/or other observable features associated with thepassive IoT device 200B to identify the passive IoT device 200B. In thismanner, any suitable physical object may communicate its identity andattributes and be observed, monitored, controlled, or otherwise managedwithin a controlled IoT network.

In an aspect, the IoT device 200B may be configured to be identifiedwith an image of the IoT device 200B, as described herein. In that case,the transceiver 206 may be configured to receive the image of the IoTdevice 200B from another user device, such as IoT device 200A, a memory(not shown) may be configured to store the image of the IoT device 200B,and a processor and/or the memory (not shown) may be configured toassociate the image of the IoT device 200B with information identifyingthe IoT device 200B.

FIG. 3 illustrates a communication device 300 that includes logicconfigured to perform functionality. The communication device 300 cancorrespond to any of the above-noted communication devices, includingbut not limited to IoT devices 110-120, IoT device 200A, any componentscoupled to the Internet 175 (e.g., the IoT server 170), and so on. Thus,communication device 300 can correspond to any electronic device that isconfigured to communicate with (or facilitate communication with) one ormore other entities over the wireless communications systems 100A-B ofFIGS. 1A-B.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 includes logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305. In an example, ifthe communication device 300 corresponds to a wireless communicationsdevice (e.g., IoT device 200A and/or passive IoT device 200B), the logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305 can include awireless communications interface (e.g., Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct,Long-Term Evolution (LTE) Direct, etc.) such as a wireless transceiverand associated hardware (e.g., an RF antenna, a MODEM, a modulatorand/or demodulator, etc.). In another example, the logic configured toreceive and/or transmit information 305 can correspond to a wiredcommunications interface (e.g., a serial connection, a USB or Firewireconnection, an Ethernet connection through which the Internet 175 can beaccessed, etc.). Thus, if the communication device 300 corresponds tosome type of network-based server (e.g., the application 170), the logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305 can correspond toan Ethernet card, in an example, that connects the network-based serverto other communication entities via an Ethernet protocol. In a furtherexample, the logic configured to receive and/or transmit information 305can include sensory or measurement hardware by which the communicationdevice 300 can monitor its local environment (e.g., an accelerometer, atemperature sensor, a light sensor, an antenna for monitoring local RFsignals, etc.). The logic configured to receive and/or transmitinformation 305 can also include software that, when executed, permitsthe associated hardware of the logic configured to receive and/ortransmit information 305 to perform its reception and/or transmissionfunction(s). However, the logic configured to receive and/or transmitinformation 305 does not correspond to software alone, and the logicconfigured to receive and/or transmit information 305 relies at least inpart upon hardware to achieve its functionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further includes logicconfigured to process information 310. In an example, the logicconfigured to process information 310 can include at least a processor.Example implementations of the type of processing that can be performedby the logic configured to process information 310 includes but is notlimited to performing determinations, establishing connections, makingselections between different information options, performing evaluationsrelated to data, interacting with sensors coupled to the communicationdevice 300 to perform measurement operations, converting informationfrom one format to another (e.g., between different protocols such as.wmv to .avi, etc.), and so on. For example, the processor included inthe logic configured to process information 310 can correspond to ageneral purpose processor, a DSP, an ASIC, a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate ortransistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combinationthereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A generalpurpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, theprocessor may be any conventional processor, controller,microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implementedas a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP anda microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or moremicroprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration). The logic configured to process information 310 can alsoinclude software that, when executed, permits the associated hardware ofthe logic configured to process information 310 to perform itsprocessing function(s). However, the logic configured to processinformation 310 does not correspond to software alone, and the logicconfigured to process information 310 relies at least in part uponhardware to achieve its functionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further includes logicconfigured to store information 315. In an example, the logic configuredto store information 315 can include at least a non-transitory memoryand associated hardware (e.g., a memory controller, etc.). For example,the non-transitory memory included in the logic configured to storeinformation 315 can correspond to RAM, flash memory, ROM, erasableprogrammable ROM (EPROM), EEPROM, registers, hard disk, a removabledisk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art.The logic configured to store information 315 can also include softwarethat, when executed, permits the associated hardware of the logicconfigured to store information 315 to perform its storage function(s).However, the logic configured to store information 315 does notcorrespond to software alone, and the logic configured to storeinformation 315 relies at least in part upon hardware to achieve itsfunctionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further optionallyincludes logic configured to present information 320. In an example, thelogic configured to present information 320 can include at least anoutput device and associated hardware. For example, the output devicecan include a video output device (e.g., a display screen, a port thatcan carry video information such as USB, HDMI, etc.), an audio outputdevice (e.g., speakers, a port that can carry audio information such asa microphone jack, USB, HDMI, etc.), a vibration device and/or any otherdevice by which information can be formatted for output or actuallyoutputted by a user or operator of the communication device 300. Forexample, if the communication device 300 corresponds to the IoT device200A as shown in FIG. 2A and/or the passive IoT device 200B as shown inFIG. 2B, the logic configured to present information 320 can include thedisplay 226. In a further example, the logic configured to presentinformation 320 can be omitted for certain communication devices, suchas network communication devices that do not have a local user (e.g.,network switches or routers, remote servers, etc.). The logic configuredto present information 320 can also include software that, whenexecuted, permits the associated hardware of the logic configured topresent information 320 to perform its presentation function(s).However, the logic configured to present information 320 does notcorrespond to software alone, and the logic configured to presentinformation 320 relies at least in part upon hardware to achieve itsfunctionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, the communication device 300 further optionallyincludes logic configured to receive local user input 325. In anexample, the logic configured to receive local user input 325 caninclude at least a user input device and associated hardware. Forexample, the user input device can include buttons, a touchscreendisplay, a keyboard, a camera, an audio input device (e.g., a microphoneor a port that can carry audio information such as a microphone jack,etc.), and/or any other device by which information can be received froma user or operator of the communication device 300. For example, if thecommunication device 300 corresponds to the IoT device 200A as shown inFIG. 2A and/or the passive IoT device 200B as shown in FIG. 2B, thelogic configured to receive local user input 325 can include the buttons222, 224A, and 224B, the display 226 (if a touchscreen), etc. In afurther example, the logic configured to receive local user input 325can be omitted for certain communication devices, such as networkcommunication devices that do not have a local user (e.g., networkswitches or routers, remote servers, etc.). The logic configured toreceive local user input 325 can also include software that, whenexecuted, permits the associated hardware of the logic configured toreceive local user input 325 to perform its input reception function(s).However, the logic configured to receive local user input 325 does notcorrespond to software alone, and the logic configured to receive localuser input 325 relies at least in part upon hardware to achieve itsfunctionality.

Referring to FIG. 3, while the configured logics of 305 through 325 areshown as separate or distinct blocks in FIG. 3, it will be appreciatedthat the hardware and/or software by which the respective configuredlogic performs its functionality can overlap in part. For example, anysoftware used to facilitate the functionality of the configured logicsof 305 through 325 can be stored in the non-transitory memory associatedwith the logic configured to store information 315, such that theconfigured logics of 305 through 325 each performs their functionality(i.e., in this case, software execution) based in part upon theoperation of software stored by the logic configured to storeinformation 315. Likewise, hardware that is directly associated with oneof the configured logics can be borrowed or used by other configuredlogics from time to time. For example, the processor of the logicconfigured to process information 310 can format data into anappropriate format before being transmitted by the logic configured toreceive and/or transmit information 305, such that the logic configuredto receive and/or transmit information 305 performs its functionality(i.e., in this case, transmission of data) based in part upon theoperation of hardware (i.e., the processor) associated with the logicconfigured to process information 310.

Generally, unless stated otherwise explicitly, the phrase “logicconfigured to” as used throughout this disclosure is intended to invokean aspect that is at least partially implemented with hardware, and isnot intended to map to software-only implementations that areindependent of hardware. Also, it will be appreciated that theconfigured logic or “logic configured to” in the various blocks are notlimited to specific logic gates or elements, but generally refer to theability to perform the functionality described herein (either viahardware or a combination of hardware and software). Thus, theconfigured logics or “logic configured to” as illustrated in the variousblocks are not necessarily implemented as logic gates or logic elementsdespite sharing the word “logic.” Other interactions or cooperationbetween the logic in the various blocks will become clear to one ofordinary skill in the art from a review of the aspects described belowin more detail.

The various embodiments may be implemented on any of a variety ofcommercially available server devices, such as server 400 illustrated inFIG. 4. In an example, the server 400 may correspond to one exampleconfiguration of the IoT server 170 described above. In FIG. 4, theserver 400 includes a processor 401 coupled to volatile memory 402 and alarge capacity nonvolatile memory, such as a disk drive 403. The server400 may also include a floppy disc drive, compact disc (CD) or DVD discdrive 406 coupled to the processor 401. The server 400 may also includenetwork access ports 404 coupled to the processor 401 for establishingdata connections with a network 407, such as a local area networkcoupled to other broadcast system computers and servers or to theInternet. In context with FIG. 3, it will be appreciated that the server400 of FIG. 4 illustrates one example implementation of thecommunication device 300, whereby the logic configured to transmitand/or receive information 305 corresponds to the network access points404 used by the server 400 to communicate with the network 407, thelogic configured to process information 310 corresponds to the processor401, and the logic configuration to store information 315 corresponds toany combination of the volatile memory 402, the disk drive 403 and/orthe disc drive 406. The optional logic configured to present information320 and the optional logic configured to receive local user input 325are not shown explicitly in FIG. 4 and may or may not be includedtherein. Thus, FIG. 4 helps to demonstrate that the communication device300 may be implemented as a server, in addition to an IoT deviceimplementation as in FIG. 2A.

In general, user equipment (UE) such as telephones, tablet computers,laptop and desktop computers, certain vehicles, etc., can be configuredto connect with each other either locally (e.g., Bluetooth, local Wi-Fi,etc.) or remotely (e.g., via cellular networks, through the Internet,etc.). Furthermore, certain UEs may also support proximity-basedpeer-to-peer (P2P) communication using certain wireless networkingtechnologies (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, etc.) that enabledevices to make a one-to-one connection or simultaneously connect to agroup that includes several devices in order to directly communicatewith one another. To that end, FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary wirelesscommunication network or WAN 500 that may support discoverable P2Pservices. For example, in one embodiment, the wireless communicationnetwork 500 may comprise an LTE network or another suitable WAN thatincludes various base stations 510 and other network entities. Forsimplicity, only three base stations 510 a, 510 b and 510 c, one networkcontroller 530, and one Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)server 540 are shown in FIG. 5. A base station 510 may be an entity thatcommunicates with devices 520 and may also be referred to as a Node B,an evolved Node B (eNB), an access point, etc. Each base station 510 mayprovide communication coverage for a particular geographic area and maysupport communication for the devices 520 located within the coveragearea. To improve network capacity, the overall coverage area of a basestation 510 may be partitioned into multiple (e.g., three) smallerareas, wherein each smaller area may be served by a respective basestation 510. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of abase station 510 and/or a base station subsystem 510 serving thiscoverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In3GPP2, the term “sector” or “cell-sector” can refer to a coverage areaof a base station 510 and/or a base station subsystem 510 serving thiscoverage area. For clarity, the 3GPP concept of “cell” may be used inthe description herein.

A base station 510 may provide communication coverage for a macro cell,a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other cell types. A macro cell maycover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers inradius) and may allow unrestricted access by devices 520 with servicesubscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic areaand may allow unrestricted access by devices 520 with servicesubscription. A femto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area(e.g., a home) and may allow restricted access by devices 520 havingassociation with the femto cell (e.g., devices 520 in a ClosedSubscriber Group (CSG)). In the example shown in FIG. 5, wirelessnetwork 500 includes macro base stations 510 a, 510 b and 510 c formacro cells. Wireless network 500 may also include pico base stations510 for pico cells and/or home base stations 510 for femto cells (notshown in FIG. 5).

Network controller 530 may couple to a set of base stations 510 and mayprovide coordination and control for these base stations 510. Networkcontroller 530 may be a single network entity or a collection of networkentities that can communicate with the base stations via a backhaul. Thebase stations may also communicate with one another, e.g., directly orindirectly via wireless or wireline backhaul. DHCP server 540 maysupport P2P communication, as described below. DHCP server 540 may bepart of wireless network 500, external to wireless network 500, run viaInternet Connection Sharing (ICS), or any suitable combination thereof.DHCP server 540 may be a separate entity (e.g., as shown in FIG. 5) ormay be part of a base station 510, network controller 530, or some otherentity. In any case, DHCP server 540 may be reachable by devices 520desiring to communicate peer-to-peer.

Devices 520 may be dispersed throughout wireless network 500, and eachdevice 520 may be stationary or mobile. A device 520 may also bereferred to as a node, user equipment (UE), a station, a mobile station,a terminal, an access terminal, a subscriber unit, etc. A device 520 maybe a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wirelessmodem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, a laptopcomputer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a smartphone, a netbook, a smartbook, a tablet, etc. A device 520 maycommunicate with base stations 510 in the wireless network 500 and mayfurther communicate peer-to-peer with other devices 520. For example, asshown in FIG. 5, devices 520 a and 520 b may communicate peer-to-peer,devices 520 c and 520 d may communicate peer-to-peer, devices 520 e and520 f may communicate peer-to-peer, and devices 520 g, 520 h, and 520 imay communicate peer-to-peer, while remaining devices 520 maycommunicate with base stations 510. As further shown in FIG. 5, devices520 a, 520 d, 520 f, and 520 h may also communicate with base stations500, e.g., when not engaged in P2P communication or possibly concurrentwith P2P communication.

In the description herein, WAN communication may refer to communicationbetween a device 520 and a base station 510 in wireless network 500,e.g., for a call with a remote entity such as another device 520. A WANdevice is a device 520 that is interested or engaged in WANcommunication. P2P communication refers to direct communication betweentwo or more devices 520, without going through any base station 510. AP2P device is a device 520 that is interested or engaged in P2Pcommunication, e.g., a device 520 that has traffic data for anotherdevice 520 within proximity of the P2P device. Two devices may beconsidered to be within proximity of one another, for example, if eachdevice 520 can detect the other device 520. In general, a device 520 maycommunicate with another device 520 either directly for P2Pcommunication or via at least one base station 510 for WANcommunication.

In one embodiment, direct communication between P2P devices 520 may beorganized into P2P groups. More particularly, a P2P group generallyrefers to a group of two or more devices 520 interested or engaged inP2P communication and a P2P link refers to a communication link for aP2P group. Furthermore, in one embodiment, a P2P group may include onedevice 520 designated a P2P group owner (or a P2P server) and one ormore devices 520 designated P2P clients that are served by the P2P groupowner. The P2P group owner may perform certain management functions suchas exchanging signaling with a WAN, coordinating data transmissionbetween the P2P group owner and P2P clients, etc. For example, as shownin FIG. 5, a first P2P group includes devices 520 a and 520 b under thecoverage of base station 510 a, a second P2P group includes devices 520c and 520 d under the coverage of base station 510 b, a third P2P groupincludes devices 520 e and 520 f under the coverage of different basestations 510 b and 510 c, and a fourth P2P group includes devices 520 g,520 h and 520 i under the coverage of base station 510 c. Devices 520 a,520 d, 520 f, and 520 h may be P2P group owners for their respective P2Pgroups and devices 520 b, 520 c, 520 e, 520 g, and 520 i may be P2Pclients in their respective P2P groups. The other devices 520 in FIG. 5may be engaged in WAN communication.

In one embodiment, P2P communication may occur only within a P2P groupand may further occur only between the P2P group owner and the P2Pclients associated therewith. For example, if two P2P clients within thesame P2P group (e.g., devices 520 g and 520 i) desire to exchangeinformation, one of the P2P clients may send the information to the P2Pgroup owner (e.g., device 520 h) and the P2P group owner may then relaytransmissions to the other P2P client. In one embodiment, a particulardevice 520 may belong to multiple P2P groups and may behave as either aP2P group owner or a P2P client in each P2P group. Furthermore, in oneembodiment, a particular P2P client may belong to only one P2P group orbelong to multiple P2P group and communicate with P2P devices 520 in anyof the multiple P2P groups at any particular moment. In general,communication may be facilitated via transmissions on the downlink anduplink. For WAN communication, the downlink (or forward link) refers tothe communication link from base stations 510 to devices 520, and theuplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from devices520 to base stations 510. For P2P communication, the P2P downlink refersto the communication link from P2P group owners to P2P clients and theP2P uplink refers to the communication link from P2P clients to P2Pgroup owners. In certain embodiments, rather than using WAN technologiesto communicate P2P, two or more devices may form smaller P2P groups andcommunicate P2P on a wireless local area network (WLAN) usingtechnologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi Direct. For example, P2Pcommunication using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi Direct, or other WLANtechnologies may enable P2P communication between two or more mobilephones, game consoles, laptop computers, or other suitable communicationentities.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 6 illustrates anexemplary environment 600 in which discoverable P2P services may be usedto establish a proximity-based distributed bus over which variousdevices 610, 630, 640 may communicate. For example, in one embodiment,communications between applications and the like, on a single platformmay be facilitated using an interprocess communication protocol (IPC)framework over the distributed bus 625, which may comprise a softwarebus used to enable application-to-application communications in anetworked computing environment where applications register with thedistributed bus 625 to offer services to other applications and otherapplications query the distributed bus 625 for information aboutregistered applications. Such a protocol may provide asynchronousnotifications and remote procedure calls (RPCs) in which signal messages(e.g., notifications) may be point-to-point or broadcast, method callmessages (e.g., RPCs) may be synchronous or asynchronous, and thedistributed bus 625 (e.g., a “daemon” bus process) may handle messagerouting between the various devices 610, 630, 640.

In one embodiment, the distributed bus 625 may be supported by a varietyof transport protocols (e.g., Bluetooth, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, CDMA, GPRS,UMTS, etc.). For example, according to one aspect, a first device 610may include a distributed bus node 612 and one or more local endpoints614, wherein the distributed bus node 612 may facilitate communicationsbetween local endpoints 614 associated with the first device 610 andlocal endpoints 634 and 644 associated with a second device 630 and athird device 640 through the distributed bus 625 (e.g., via distributedbus nodes 632 and 642 on the second device 630 and the third device640). As will be described in further detail below with reference toFIG. 7, the distributed bus 625 may support symmetric multi-devicenetwork topologies and may provide a robust operation in the presence ofdevice drops-outs. As such, the virtual distributed bus 625, which maygenerally be independent from any underlying transport protocol (e.g.,Bluetooth, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, etc.) may allow various security options, fromunsecured (e.g., open) to secured (e.g., authenticated and encrypted),wherein the security options can be used while facilitating spontaneousconnections with among the first device 610, the second device 630, andthe third device 640 without intervention when the various devices 610,630, 640 come into range or proximity to each other.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 7 illustrates anexemplary message sequence 700 in which discoverable P2P services may beused to establish a proximity-based distributed bus over which a firstdevice (“Device A”) 710 and a second device (“Device B”) 730 maycommunicate. Generally, Device A 710 may request to communicate withDevice B 730, wherein Device A 710 may a include local endpoint 714(e.g., a local application, service, etc.), which may make a request tocommunicate in addition to a bus node 712 that may assist infacilitating such communications. Further, Device B 730 may include alocal endpoint 734 with which the local endpoint 714 may be attemptingto communicate in addition to a bus node 732 that may assist infacilitating communications between the local endpoint 714 on the DeviceA 710 and the local endpoint 734 on Device B 730.

In one embodiment, the bus nodes 712 and 732 may perform a suitablediscovery mechanism at message sequence step 754. For example,mechanisms for discovering connections supported by Bluetooth, TCP/IP,UNIX, or the like may be used. At message sequence step 756, the localendpoint 714 on Device A 710 may request to connect to an entity,service, endpoint etc, available through bus node 712. In oneembodiment, the request may include a request-and-response processbetween local endpoint 714 and bus node 712. At message sequence step758, a distributed message bus may be formed to connect bus node 712 tobus node 732 and thereby establish a P2P connection between Device A 710and Device B 730. In one embodiment, communications to form thedistributed bus between the bus nodes 712 and 732 may be facilitatedusing a suitable proximity-based P2P protocol (e.g., the AllJoyn™software framework designed to enable interoperability among connectedproducts and software applications from different manufacturers todynamically create proximal networks and facilitate proximal P2Pcommunication). Alternatively, in one embodiment, a server (not shown)may facilitate the connection between the bus nodes 712 and 732.Furthermore, in one embodiment, a suitable authentication mechanism maybe used prior to forming the connection between bus nodes 712 and 732(e.g., SASL authentication in which a client may send an authenticationcommand to initiate an authentication conversation). Still further,during message sequence step 758, bus nodes 712 and 732 may exchangeinformation about other available endpoints (e.g., local endpoints 644on Device C 640 in FIG. 6). In such embodiments, each local endpointthat a bus node maintains may be advertised to other bus nodes, whereinthe advertisement may include unique endpoint names, transport types,connection parameters, or other suitable information.

In one embodiment, at message sequence step 760, bus node 712 and busnode 732 may use obtained information associated with the localendpoints 734 and 714, respectively, to create virtual endpoints thatmay represent the real obtained endpoints available through various busnodes. In one embodiment, message routing on the bus node 712 may usereal and virtual endpoints to deliver messages. Further, there may onelocal virtual endpoint for every endpoint that exists on remote devices(e.g., Device A 710). Still further, such virtual endpoints maymultiplex and/or de-multiplex messages sent over the distributed bus(e.g., a connection between bus node 712 and bus node 732). In oneaspect, virtual endpoints may receive messages from the local bus node712 or 732, just like real endpoints, and may forward messages over thedistributed bus. As such, the virtual endpoints may forward messages tothe local bus nodes 712 and 732 from the endpoint multiplexeddistributed bus connection. Furthermore, in one embodiment, virtualendpoints that correspond to virtual endpoints on a remote device may bereconnected at any time to accommodate desired topologies of specifictransport types. In such an aspect, UNIX based virtual endpoints may beconsidered local and as such may not be considered candidates forreconnection. Further, TCP-based virtual endpoints may be optimized forone hop routing (e.g., each bus node 712 and 732 may be directlyconnected to each other). Still further, Bluetooth-based virtualendpoints may be optimized for a single pico-net (e.g., one master and nslaves) in which the Bluetooth-based master may be the same bus node asa local master node.

At message sequence step 762, the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 mayexchange bus state information to merge bus instances and enablecommunication over the distributed bus. For example, in one embodiment,the bus state information may include a well-known to unique endpointname mapping, matching rules, routing group, or other suitableinformation. In one embodiment, the state information may becommunicated between the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 instancesusing an interface with local endpoints 714 and 734 communicating withusing a distributed bus based local name. In another aspect, bus node712 and bus node 732 may each may maintain a local bus controllerresponsible for providing feedback to the distributed bus, wherein thebus controller may translate global methods, arguments, signals, andother information into the standards associated with the distributedbus. At message sequence step 764, the bus node 712 and the bus node 732may communicate (e.g., broadcast) signals to inform the respective localendpoints 714 and 734 about any changes introduced during bus nodeconnections, such as described above. In one embodiment, new and/orremoved global and/or translated names may be indicated with name ownerchanged signals. Furthermore, global names that may be lost locally(e.g., due to name collisions) may be indicated with name lost signals.Still further, global names that are transferred due to name collisionsmay be indicated with name owner changed signals and unique names thatdisappear if and/or when the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 becomedisconnected may be indicated with name owner changed signals.

As used above, well-known names may be used to uniquely describe localendpoints 714 and 734. In one embodiment, when communications occurbetween Device A 710 and Device B 730, different well-known name typesmay be used. For example, a device local name may exist only on the busnode 712 associated with Device A 710 to which the bus node 712 directlyattaches. In another example, a global name may exist on all known busnodes 712 and 732, where only one owner of the name may exist on all bussegments. In other words, when the bus node 712 and bus node 732 arejoined and any collisions occur, one of the owners may lose the globalname. In still another example, a translated name may be used when aclient is connected to other bus nodes associated with a virtual bus. Insuch an aspect, the translated name may include an appended end (e.g., alocal endpoint 714 with well-known name “org.foo” connected to thedistributed bus with Globally Unique Identifier “1234” may be seen as“G1234.org.foo”).

At message sequence step 766, the bus node 712 and the bus node 732 maycommunicate (e.g., broadcast) signals to inform other bus nodes ofchanges to endpoint bus topologies. Thereafter, traffic from localendpoint 714 may move through virtual endpoints to reach intended localendpoint 734 on Device B 730. Further, in operation, communicationsbetween local endpoint 714 and local endpoint 734 may use routinggroups. In one aspect, routing groups may enable endpoints to receivesignals, method calls, or other suitable information from a subset ofendpoints. As such, a routing name may be determined by an applicationconnected to a bus node 712 or 732. For example, a P2P application mayuse a unique, well-known routing group name built into the application.Further, bus nodes 712 and 732 may support registering and/orde-registering of local endpoints 714 and 734 with routing groups. Inone embodiment, routing groups may have no persistence beyond a currentbus instance. In another aspect, applications may register for theirpreferred routing groups each time they connect to the distributed bus.Still further, groups may be open (e.g., any endpoint can join) orclosed (e.g., only the creator of the group can modify the group). Yetfurther, a bus node 712 or 732 may send signals to notify other remotebus nodes or additions, removals, or other changes to routing groupendpoints. In such embodiments, the bus node 712 or 732 may send arouting group change signal to other group members whenever a member isadded and/or removed from the group. Further, the bus node 712 or 732may send a routing group change signal to endpoints that disconnect fromthe distributed bus without first removing themselves from the routinggroup.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 8 illustrates anexemplary system architecture 800 in which discoverable P2P servicesused over a Wi-Fi network may allow remote onboarding of headlessdevices (e.g., a computer system or device that has been configured tooperate without a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, and which can becontrolled via a network connection). As shown in FIG. 8, the systemarchitecture 800 may include an onboardee device 810 attempting toassociate and authenticate to a personal access point (AP) and therebyjoin the Wi-Fi network, wherein the onboardee device 810 may correspondto a new device that has not previously been configured to access theWi-Fi network or a device that was previously configured to access theWi-Fi network and subsequently offboarded (e.g., to reset the device tofactory-default settings or otherwise change a configuration stateassociated with the device, to change a configuration state associatedwith the Wi-Fi network, etc.). Furthermore, the system architecture 800may include an onboarder device 820 that been configured and validatedon the Wi-Fi network and uses the discoverable P2P services to remotelyonboard the onboardee device 810 to the Wi-Fi network.

In one embodiment, the onboardee device 810 and the onboarder device 820may run respective onboarding applications 812, 822 that communicatewith respective P2P platforms 814 that provide the discoverable P2Pservices that may facilitate the remote onboarding (e.g., the AllJoyn™software framework mentioned above). As such, the onboardee device 810and the onboarder device 820 may communicate with one another using themechanisms described in further detail above to form a distributed bus825 that may enable communication between the respective onboardingapplications 812, 822, which may correspond to the local endpointsdescribed above in connection with FIGS. 6-7. Furthermore, in oneembodiment, the onboardee device 810 and the onboarder device 820 mayrun respective operating systems 816, 826 that run a host “daemon” busprocess to handle message routing between the onboardee device 810 andthe onboarder device 820. For example, in one embodiment, the respectiveonboarding applications 812, 822 may communicate with the respectivehost daemons running on the onboardee device 810 and the onboarderdevice 820, wherein the respective host daemons may implement localsegments of the distributed bus 825 and coordinate message flows acrossthe distributed bus 825. In this configuration, the onboardingapplication 812 can make remote method calls to an onboarding service818 that facilitates certain processes to configure and validate theonboardee device 810 in order to access the Wi-Fi network, as will bedescribed in further detail herein. In this manner, the onboardingapplication 812 can communicate with the onboarding service 818 asthough the onboarding service 818 were a local object, whereinparameters may be marshaled at the source and routed off of the localbus segment by the local host daemon and then transparently sent over anetwork link to the local host daemon on the onboarder device 820. Thedaemon running on the onboarder device 820 may then determine that thedestination is the local onboarding application 822 and arrange to havethe parameters unmarshaled and the remote method invoked on the localonboarding application 822.

As such, the daemons may generally run in one or more backgroundprocesses and the onboarding applications 812, 822 and the onboardingservice 818 may run in separate processes, whereby the onboardingapplications 812, 822 and the onboarding service 818 may have respectivelocal “bus attachments” that represent the local host daemon and handlemessage routing therebetween. Alternatively, in certain cases, theonboardee device 810 may be a thin client, an embedded device, oranother device that has a constrained operating environment (e.g.,limited size, memory, processor speed, power, peripherals, userinterfaces, etc.). As such, where the onboardee device 810 has limitedcapabilities, bundling local bus attachments into each application orservice that uses the P2P platform 814 may interfere with performance(e.g., because substantial bus attachments may require substantialnetwork connections, memory, etc.). In these cases, rather than having alocal bus attachment within the onboarding application 812 and/or theonboarding service 818, the onboarding application 812 may insteademploy a thin client application program interface and the P2P platform814 may instead employ a thin client process that utilizes the hostdaemon on the onboardee device 810 running the onboarding application812. However, in either case, the call flows and behavior that occurbetween the onboardee device 810 and the onboarder device 820 toconfigure and validate the onboardee device 810 in order to access theWi-Fi network may be substantially the same whether the onboardingapplication 812 implements a local bus attachment to communicate withthe host daemon or communicates directly with the host daemon.

Having provided the above overview relating to the system architecture800 in which discoverable P2P services may be used to allow remoteonboarding of the onboardee device 810 over a Wi-Fi network, variousaspects that relate to the specific mechanisms that may be used to allowremote onboarding over a Wi-Fi network via discoverable P2P serviceswill now be described.

More particularly, when a device is powered, the device may typicallyeither enter an “onboarding” mode or a “connected” mode according to aconfiguration state associated therewith. In either the onboarding modeor the connected mode, the device may wait for other peer devices toconnect to the device and provide network configuration credentials andconfiguration information. Furthermore, in the onboarding mode, thedevice may become a Wi-Fi access point (AP) and await Wi-Fi clients toconnect thereto. For example, in one embodiment, the device in theonboarding mode may enter a Software-enabled Access Point (SoftAP) modein which a wireless client antenna may work as both the access point andthe client (e.g., software on the device may create a wireless orportable hotspot that other wireless devices in the vicinity can use,whereby cellular telephones or other devices with a client antenna and adata connection can act as an access point to serve other wirelessdevices in the vicinity that may otherwise lack a data connection).Alternatively, in the connected mode, the device may connect to awireless network for which the device has already been configured. Ineither the onboarding mode or the connected mode, the device maygenerally wait for other peer devices to connect thereto and provideappropriate network configuration and credential information.

Accordingly, as will be described in further detail herein, FIG. 9Aillustrates an exemplary message sequence 900A in which discoverable P2Pservices may be used to allow remote onboarding of headless devices overa Wi-Fi network. For example, in one embodiment, the message sequence900A shown in FIG. 9A may occur between an onboardee device 910attempting to join a personal Wi-Fi network and an onboarder device 920that may remotely onboard the onboardee device 910 to the personal Wi-Finetwork. In particular, the onboardee device 910 and/or the onboarderdevice 920 may correspond to smart devices that may execute applicationsrunning P2P clients, wherein the onboardee device 910 may startup in theSoftAP (or “onboarding” mode) and perform a broadcast search for a coredaemon associated with the discoverable P2P services. If available, theonboarder device 920 may scan a quick response (QR) code to obtaininformation associated with the SoftAP that corresponds to the onboardeedevice 910. Alternatively, the onboarder device 920 may scan for devicesin the SoftAP (or onboarding) mode and prompt an end user 925 to selecta SoftAP Service Set Identifier (SSID) from a list that includes anydevices that were found in the scan. For example, the SoftAP SSIDassociated with the onboardee device 910 may be found in response todiscovering the broadcast search transmitted by the onboardee device910. In the latter case, where the QR code was unavailable or the SoftAPinformation otherwise could not be obtained therefrom, the messagesequence 900A may further include receiving a SoftAP selection from theend user 925, wherein the application running on the onboarder device920 may then prompt the end user 925 to provide a passphrase associatedwith the SoftAP corresponding to the onboardee device 910. The onboarderdevice 920 may then connect to the SoftAP corresponding to the onboardeedevice 910 and the onboardee device 910 may in turn connect to the coreP2P daemon running on the onboarder device 920.

The onboardee device 910 may then transmit a public announcement signal,which may be detected at the onboarder device 920. In one embodiment, ifthe onboarder device 920 has an appropriate onboarding interface, theonboarder device 920 may establish a session with the onboardee device910 and engage with the services associated therewith. During theengagement, a secured connection may be established based on a keyexchange algorithm in which a shared symmetric key may be generatedusing shared evidence. For example, the first time that the onboardeedevice 910 and the onboarder device 920 attempt to engage with oneanother, the shared evidence may correspond to well-known evidence(e.g., a default passcode for the onboarding interface, which may beconfigured as part of factory settings during an original equipmentmanufacturing process). Subsequently, an appropriate service method maybe called to immediately alter the well-known or default evidence to ashared secret (e.g., a custom password established by the end user 925).In response to suitably establishing the secured connection, theonboarder device 920 may then call an appropriate service method totransfer configuration information associated with the personal Wi-Finetwork to the onboardee device 910. For example, in one embodiment, theconfiguration information transferred from the onboarder device 920 tothe onboardee device 910 may comprise an SSID, a passphrase or otherauthentication credentials, and/or an authentication type associatedwith a personal access point (AP) on the personal Wi-Fi network. In oneembodiment, the onboardee device 910 may then return a status signal tothe onboarder device 920 to indicate whether the personal APconfiguration information has been received and appropriately set, andthe onboarder device 920 may then instruct the onboardee device 910 toconnect to the personal AP. In one embodiment, in response to theonboardee device 910 successfully joining the personal AP, the onboardeedevice 910 may then call an appropriate service method to leave theonboarding mode. Furthermore, the same mechanisms can be used when theonboardee device 910 operates in the connected mode (i.e., has alreadybeen “onboarded”). For example, the onboardee device 910 may beconnected to the same Wi-Fi network as the onboarder device 920 anddiscover and engage with the P2P services running thereon, whereby theonboarder device 920 may remotely modify the network configurationassociated with the onboardee device 910 and thereby cause the onboardeedevice 910 to shift to a different network. Further still, if theonboardee device 910 supports fast channel switching, the onboarderdevice 920 may receive a connection result signal when the onboardeedevice 910 completes the connection attempt against the personal AP,wherein the connection result signal may be sent over the SoftAP linkand include an appropriate value to indicate the result from theconnection attempt (e.g., validated, unreachable, unsupported protocol,unauthorized, error, etc.).

According to one aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 9B illustrates anotherexemplary message sequence 900B in which discoverable P2P services maybe used to allow remote onboarding of headless devices over a Wi-Finetwork. In particular, certain devices may run operating systems orother platforms that lack support to initiate Wi-Fi scansprogrammatically via an application program interface (API), in whichcase certain operations shown in FIG. 9A may not be supported. Forexample, an appropriately configured API can be used to programmaticallyinitiate a Wi-Fi scan on the Android operating system, whereasprogrammatically initiating a Wi-Fi scan may be unsupported on otheroperating systems such as iOS. As such, in one exemplary use case, anonboarder device 920 running the Android operating system may use themessage sequence shown in FIG. 9A, while an onboarder device 920 runningthe iOS operating system may use the message sequence shown in FIG. 9B.In general, the message sequences 900A and 900B may be substantiallysimilar. However, rather than prompting the end user 925 to select theSoftAP SSID from a scan list and supply the SoftAP passphrase, messagesequence 900B may prepare a dialog regarding a Wi-Fi settings screen orother user interface that the onboarder device 920 employs to choose aWi-Fi network (e.g., because the appropriate SoftAP SSID cannot beobtained through a programmatically initiated Wi-Fi scan). Additionally,the onboarder device 920 may include a facility to suggest a name prefixand passphrase associated with the SoftAP and guide the end user 925 toselect the SoftAP from the appropriate Wi-Fi settings screen. The enduser 925 may then make the selection, which may be provided to theapplication on the onboarder device 920. In one embodiment, the messagesequence 900B may then have the onboarder device 920 and the onboardeedevice 910 communicate in a similar manner as described above withrespect to message sequence 900A until the onboarder device 920establishes the session with the onboardee device 910 and engages withthe services associated therewith if the appropriate onboardinginterface is available.

In one embodiment, at the point that message sequence 900A would promptthe end user 925 to select the personal AP from a Wi-Fi scan list, whichcannot be obtained through a programmatically-initiated Wi-Fi scan onthe onboarder device 920, message sequence 900B may include additionalcommunication flows in which the onboarder device 920 may use anonboardee-assisted Wi-Fi scan to obtain the Wi-Fi scan list. Forexample, in one embodiment, the onboarder device 920 may invoke anappropriate service method that instructs the onboardee device 910 toscan all Wi-Fi access points in proximity thereto, and the onboardeedevice 910 may subsequently return a Wi-Fi scan list that includes anarray of SSIDs and any associated authentication types to the onboarderdevice 920, thereby completing the onboardee-assisted Wi-Fi scan. In oneembodiment, message sequence 900B may then prompt the end user 925 toselect the personal AP in the same manner as message sequence 900A andinclude subsequent communication flows that are substantially the sameas those described above with respect to FIG. 9A.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 10 illustrates anexemplary method 1000 that the onboarder device may perform to use thediscoverable P2P services to remotely onboard the onboardee device overthe Wi-Fi network, wherein the onboardee device may correspond to aheadless device. In particular, the onboarder device may initiallyobtain SoftAP information corresponding to the onboardee deviceattempting to join the personal Wi-Fi network at block 1005. Forexample, in one embodiment, block 1005 may include scanning a QR codewith a camera on the onboarder device, in which case the SoftAPinformation may be obtained from the scanned QR code, or block 1005 mayalternatively prompt the user to enter the SoftAP information, in whichcase the SoftAP information may be obtained from the user. In eithercase, in response to obtaining the SoftAP information, the onboarderdevice may then attempt to connect to the SoftAP that corresponds to theonboardee device (e.g., as a client) at block 1010. The onboarder devicemay then determine whether the attempted connection was successful atblock 1015, wherein an error message may be generated at block 1060 inresponse to the onboarder device failing to connect to the SoftAP thatcorresponds to the onboardee device. Otherwise, in response todetermining that the attempted connection was successful, the onboarderdevice may then search for and connect to the onboarding service atblock 1020. Furthermore, in one embodiment, the onboarder device mayconfigure the onboardee device with the personal AP information at block1020 in response to successfully connecting to the SoftAP and theonboarding service. For example, in one embodiment, the onboarder devicemay transfer an SSID, authentication credentials (e.g., a passphrase),and/or an authentication type associated with the personal AP to theonboardee device to configure the onboardee device at block 1020, andthe onboarder device may then instruct the onboardee device to connectto the personal AP at block 1030.

In one embodiment, the onboarder device may then determine whether theonboardee device attempting to connect to the personal AP wassuccessfully validated at block 1035. For example, the onboardee devicemay generally perform a validation process in response to suitablyreceiving the personal AP configuration and validation informationtransferred at block 1025. As such, in response to determining at block1035 that the onboardee device failed to successfully validate (e.g.,because the onboardee device provided invalid authentication credentialsor otherwise failed to provide valid configuration information), anerror message may be returned at block 1060. Alternatively, if theonboardee device was successfully validated, the onboarder device maythen attempt to locate the onboardee device on the personal AP at block1040 and then determine whether the onboardee device was found on thepersonal AP at block 1045. In response to determining that the onboardeedevice could not be found on the personal AP, an error message to thateffect may be generated at block 1060. Otherwise, in response todetermining that the onboardee device was found on the personal AP atblock 1045, the onboarder device may determine that the onboardee devicewas successfully onboarded to the Wi-Fi network and the onboardingprocess may end at block 1060.

According to one aspect of the disclosure, FIG. 11 illustrates anexemplary method 1100 that the onboardee device may perform to use thediscoverable P2P services to remotely onboard to the Wi-Fi network. Forexample, in one embodiment, the method 1100 may generally be performedduring and/or in connection with the method 1000 shown in FIG. 10 wherethe onboarder device attempts to provision the onboardee device withconfiguration and credential information that the onboardee device canuse to join the personal Wi-Fi network, which may occur when theonboardee device enters an onboarding mode at block 1105 (e.g., while inan offboarded mode, after being reset to factory settings, after losingconnecting to the Wi-Fi network, etc.). Furthermore, the method 1100 maybe performed while the SoftAP is available, which may depend on theconfiguration state associated with the onboardee device. For example,in one embodiment, the SoftAP may be available when the onboardee devicehas a configuration state in which the personal AP is not configured,the personal AP is configured but not validated, the personal AP isconfigured but an error has occurred, and/or the personal AP isconfigured and the onboardee device is retrying to connect to thepersonal AP (e.g., if the onboardee device has configured and beenvalidated to the personal AP but fails to connect after a configurablenumber of delayed attempts, the onboardee device may transition to theretry state in which the SoftAP is enabled to allow the onboardee deviceto be reconfigured, and the onboardee device may then return to theconfigured and validated state and retry to connect with the personal APafter a timer expires).

In one embodiment, the personal AP may generally not be configured whenthe method 1100 begins, whereby the onboardee device may initiallyreceive the personal AP configuration information at block 1110. Forexample, in one embodiment, block 1110 may include the onboardee devicereceiving a name (e.g., an SSID), authentication credentials (e.g., apassphrase), and/or an authentication type associated with the personalAP from the onboarder device. When the authentication type equals “any,”the onboardee device may attempt one or more possible authenticationtypes supported thereon to connect to the personal AP. In any case, theonboardee device may then attempt to connect to the personal AP usingthe received personal AP information at block 1115 and determine whetherthe attempted connection was successful at block 1120. In response tofailing to connect to the personal AP, an error message may be generatedat block 1140. Otherwise, in response to successfully connecting to thepersonal AP, the onboardee device may attempt to validate with thepersonal AP at block 1125 using mechanisms similar to those described infurther detail above. In response to determining that the attemptedvalidation failed at block 1130, the onboardee device may then attemptto retry the validating process a particular number of times at block1125 before declaring that the passphrase and/or authentication typeused at block 1125 is not valid. For example, the validating process maybe retried at block 1125 a maximum number of times N, or the onboardeedevice may alternatively not perform the maximum number of retries ifthe reason for the failure is known. In any case, in response to failingto successfully validate, an appropriate error message may be generatedat block 1140, or the onboarding process may be appropriately completedat block 1135 in response to successfully validating to the personal AP.

As IoT devices become increasingly widespread, users will interact withan ever greater number of IoT devices. Because of this, when a userreceives an alert that an IoT device needs to be physically accessed,the user may have a difficult time identifying which physical IoT deviceneeds to be accessed, even if the user knows the name and/or type of thedevice. For example, there may be three of the same kind of videoprojector in a room. The user may receive an alert that the bulb in“projector 2” needs to be replaced. If the projectors are named“projector 1,” “projector 2,” and “projector 3,” for example, the usermay not be able to easily identify which projector is “projector 2.”Even if the projectors are labeled, the labels may not be immediatelyapparent, or they may not be visible without using a ladder.

As another example, the user may have forgotten where he or sheinstalled a particular IoT device, such as a home security sensor. Ifthe sensor alerts the user that it needs a new battery, for example, theuser may not only have difficulty identifying which sensor is sendingthe alert, but also where the sensor is located.

To assist the user in quickly identifying a particular IoT device andits location, a user onboarding or configuring the IoT device can take apicture of the IoT device and transmit the image to the IoT deviceduring or after the onboarding process. The IoT device can store theimage, and when sending an alert and/or its About information to theuser, it can also send the image. Seeing a picture of the IoT device inits environment will help the user quickly identify the IoT device andits location.

For example, during the onboarding process, described above withreference to FIGS. 8-11, if the user onboards the IoT device using asmartphone, a tablet computer, or some other device that has a camera,the user can take a picture of the onboardee IoT device with theonboarder device's camera and simply transmit the image to the onboardeeIoT device during the onboarding process. If the onboarder device doesnot have a camera, or if the user does not take the picture with theonboarder device's camera, the user can take a picture of the onboardeeIoT device with another camera device and transmit the image to theonboarder device, which can then transmit the image to the onboardee IoTdevice. If the IoT device can onboard itself, the user can take apicture of the IoT device with a different camera device, and may thentransmit the image directly to the onboardee IoT device.

Similarly, if the user takes the picture during the configurationprocess, the user can take a picture of the IoT device with theconfigurator device's camera (if it has one) and simply transmit theimage to the IoT device during configuration. If the configurator devicedoes not have a camera, or if the user does not take the picture withthe configurator device's camera, the user can take a picture of the IoTdevice with another camera device and transmit the image to theconfigurator device, which can then transmit the image to the IoTdevice. If the user can configure the IoT device using the IoT device'suser interface, the user can take a picture of the IoT device with adifferent camera device, and may then transmit the image directly to theIoT device.

The user should take the picture of the IoT device after installing orpositioning it in its final location. In this way, the image of the IoTdevice will show the IoT device in its environment, which will help theuser to quickly identify the IoT device.

The onboarder or configurator device can prompt the user to take thepicture of the IoT device during the onboarding or configurationprocess. Alternatively, the IoT device may send a message to theonboarder or configurator device instructing it to alert the user totake the picture. The prompt may be displayed on the user interface ofthe onboarder or configurator device. The prompt may instruct the userto take a picture of the IoT device in its final location and allow theuser to switch to the onboarder or configurator device's cameraapplication.

Alternatively, if the onboarder or configurator device does not have acamera, the prompt may allow the user to select an image of the IoTdevice from the onboarder or configurator device's local memory. Theuser can then, or may have already, take the picture of the IoT devicewith another camera device and transmit the image to the onboarder orconfigurator device. The prompt may also instruct the user to include atleast a portion of the environment around the IoT device in the picturefor ease of future identification.

Although the forgoing was described in terms of a single prompt, it isapparent that there may be multiple prompts displayed to the user as theonboarder or configurator device performs the described process.

If the IoT device is later moved to another location, the user can takeanother picture of the IoT device at the new location. The user canlaunch the onboarding or configuration application and associate a newpicture with the IoT device. The onboarding or configuration applicationmay permit the user to take a new picture with the onboarder orconfigurator device's camera, or select an image from the onboarder orconfigurator device's local memory.

The IoT device may be aware that it has been moved, for example, bydetecting a change in its GPS coordinates, and/or an acceleration abovea threshold and/or for longer than a threshold period of time. In thatcase, the IoT device can alert the user that it has moved, eitherdirectly (e.g., by sending a message to the user's smartphone), or viathe onboarder or configurator device. In response, the user canreconfigure or re-onboard the IoT device with a new picture, asdiscussed above, or the onboarder or configurator device can launch theonboarding or configuration application and prompt the user to take anew picture of the IoT device.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary flow for identifying an onboardeedevice 1210 with an image of the onboardee device 1210 according to anembodiment of the disclosure. The onboardee device 1210 may be any IoTdevice, such as IoT device 200A in FIG. 2A or IoT device 200B in FIG.2B, or any onboardee device, such as onboardee device 810 in FIG. 8. Theflow shown in FIG. 12 is illustrated as occurring during the onboardingprocess. As is apparent, however, the flow illustrated in FIG. 12 couldbe performed during the configuration process instead of the onboardingprocess.

At 1230, the end user 1225 places the onboardee device 1210 in its finallocation. The term “final” does not mean that the onboardee device 1210cannot be moved again, but rather indicates that the location is thelocation at which the end user 1225 wishes the onboardee device 1210 tobe located once onboarded/configured. For example, the “final” locationof a video projector may be mounted to the ceiling of a particular room.

At 1235, the end user 1225 takes a picture of the onboardee device 1210after placing the onboardee device 1210 in its final location. The imageof the onboardee device 1210 should include at least a portion of theenvironment in which the onboardee device 1210 is located. The end user1225 may take the picture using a camera application on the onboarderdevice 1220, or a camera application on another device, in which casethe end user 1225 transfers the image to the onboarder device 1220.

At 1240, the onboarder device 1220 onboards the onboardee device 1210,as discussed above with reference to FIGS. 8-11. The onboarder device1220 may be an IoT device, such as IoT device 200B in FIG. 2B, or anyonboarder device, such as onboarder device 820 in FIG. 8. For example,the onboarder device 1220 may be the user's smartphone, tablet computer,laptop computer, or the like.

At 1245, the onboarder device 1220 receives and stores an image of theonboardee device 1210. As discussed above, the onboarder device 1220 mayreceive and store an image of the onboardee device 1210 when the usertakes a picture of the onboardee device 1210 with the camera applicationon the onboarder device 1220. Alternatively, the onboarder device 1220may receive the image from another device with a camera and store theimage in local memory. Although illustrated as separate blocks, block1245 may be performed during the onboarding process of block 1240.

At 1250, the onboardee device 1210 receives and stores the image ofitself.

At some later point in time, as indicated by the horizontal dashed line,the end user 1225, or another user, optionally requests Aboutinformation from the onboardee device 1210 (block 1255). At 1260, theonboarder device 1220 optionally sends a request for About informationto the onboardee device 1210. Although FIG. 12 illustrates the onboarderdevice 1220 sending the request for the About information, the end user1225 may send the request using any device that can communicate with theonboardee device 1210.

At 1265, the onboardee device 1210 receives the request and sends theAbout information, including the image of itself, to the onboarderdevice 1220. At 1270, the onboarder device 1220 displays the Aboutinformation, including the image of the onboardee device 1210.

Although FIG. 12 illustrates the onboarder device 1220 displaying theAbout information and the image in response to the request from the enduser 1225, the onboarder device 1220 may instead display the Aboutinformation and image upon receiving an alert from the onboardee device1210. As such, blocks 1255 and 1260 are optional and the sending inblock 1265 may be the sending of an alert that includes the Aboutinformation and image.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary flow for identifying an IoT device withan image of the IoT device. The flow illustrated in FIG. 13 may beperformed by any user device capable of capturing or receiving an image,such as IoT device 200A in FIG. 2A or onboarder device 1220 in FIG. 12.At 1310, the user device captures the image of the IoT device, asdiscussed above with reference to 1245 of FIG. 12. As discussed above,the image of the IoT device may include at least a portion of anenvironment around the IoT device. At 1320, the user device transmitsthe image from the user device to the IoT device, as discussed abovewith reference to 1245 of FIG. 12. The IoT device may associate theimage with information identifying the IoT device, as discussed abovewith reference to 1250 of FIG. 12.

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary flow for identifying an IoT device withan image of the IoT device. The flow illustrated in FIG. 14 may beperformed by any IoT device capable of receiving and storing an image,such as IoT device 200A200B in FIG. 2A/2B or onboardee device 1210 inFIG. 12. At 1410, the IoT device receives the image of the IoT devicefrom another user device, such as IoT device 200A in FIG. 2A oronboarder device 1220 in FIG. 12, as discussed above with reference to1250 of FIG. 12. As discussed above the image of the IoT device mayinclude at least a portion of an environment around the IoT device. At1420, the IoT device stores the image of the IoT device, as discussedabove with reference to 1250 of FIG. 12. At 1430, the IoT deviceassociates the image of the IoT device with information identifying theIoT device, as discussed above with reference to 1250 of FIG. 12.

FIG. 15 illustrates an example user device apparatus 1500 represented asa series of interrelated functional modules. A module for capturing 1502may correspond at least in some aspects to, for example, a camera ortransceiver, such as camera 210 or transceiver 206 in FIG. 2A, asdiscussed herein. A module for transmitting 1504 may correspond at leastin some aspects to, for example, a transceiver, such as transceiver 206in FIG. 2A, as discussed herein

FIG. 16 illustrates an example IoT device apparatus 1600 represented asa series of interrelated functional modules. A module for receiving 1602may correspond at least in some aspects to, for example, a transceiver,such as transceiver 206 in FIG. 2A/2B, as discussed herein. A module forstoring 1604 may correspond at least in some aspects to, for example, amemory, such as memory 212 in FIG. 2A, as discussed herein. A module forassociating 1606 may correspond at least in some aspects to, forexample, a memory and/or a processor, such as memory 212 and/orprocessor 208 in FIG. 2A, as discussed herein.

The functionality of the modules of FIGS. 15-16 may be implemented invarious ways consistent with the teachings herein. In some designs, thefunctionality of these modules may be implemented as one or moreelectrical components. In some designs, the functionality of theseblocks may be implemented as a processing system including one or moreprocessor components. In some designs, the functionality of thesemodules may be implemented using, for example, at least a portion of oneor more integrated circuits (e.g., an ASIC). As discussed herein, anintegrated circuit may include a processor, software, other relatedcomponents, or some combination thereof. Thus, the functionality ofdifferent modules may be implemented, for example, as different subsetsof an integrated circuit, as different subsets of a set of softwaremodules, or a combination thereof. Also, it will be appreciated that agiven subset (e.g., of an integrated circuit and/or of a set of softwaremodules) may provide at least a portion of the functionality for morethan one module.

In addition, the components and functions represented by FIGS. 15-16, aswell as other components and functions described herein, may beimplemented using any suitable means. Such means also may beimplemented, at least in part, using corresponding structure as taughtherein. For example, the components described above in conjunction withthe “module for” components of FIGS. 15-16 also may correspond tosimilarly designated “means for” functionality. Thus, in some aspectsone or more of such means may be implemented using one or more ofprocessor components, integrated circuits, or other suitable structureas taught herein.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signalsmay be represented using any of a variety of different technologies andtechniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information,signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout theabove description may be represented by voltages, currents,electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields orparticles, or any combination thereof.

Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the variousillustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm stepsdescribed in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may beimplemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinationsof both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware andsoftware, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits,and steps have been described above generally in terms of theirfunctionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware orsoftware depends upon the particular application and design constraintsimposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement thedescribed functionality in varying ways for each particular application,but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted to departfrom the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits describedin connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration).

The methods, sequences and/or algorithms described in connection withthe aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two.A software module may reside in RAM, flash memory, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM,registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form ofstorage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupledto the processor such that the processor can read information from, andwrite information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, thestorage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and thestorage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in an IoTdevice. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium mayreside as discrete components in a user terminal.

In one or more exemplary aspects, the functions described may beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof.If implemented in software, the functions may be stored on ortransmitted over as one or more instructions or code on acomputer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computerstorage media and communication media including any medium thatfacilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Astorage media may be any available media that can be accessed by acomputer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readablemedia can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical diskstorage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or anyother medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code inthe form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed bya computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readablemedium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website,server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, andmicrowave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL,or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave areincluded in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein,includes CD, laser disc, optical disc, DVD, floppy disk and Blu-ray discwhere disks usually reproduce data magnetically and/or optically withlasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within thescope of computer-readable media.

While the foregoing disclosure shows illustrative aspects of thedisclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modificationscould be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosureas defined by the appended claims. The functions, steps and/or actionsof the method claims in accordance with the aspects of the disclosuredescribed herein need not be performed in any particular order.Furthermore, although elements of the disclosure may be described orclaimed in the singular, the plural is contemplated unless limitation tothe singular is explicitly stated.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for identifying an Internet of Things(IoT) device with an image of the IoT device, comprising: capturing, bya user device, the image of the IoT device, wherein the image of the IoTdevice includes at least a portion of an environment around the IoTdevice; and transmitting the image from the user device to the IoTdevice, wherein the IoT device associates the image with informationidentifying the IoT device.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: connecting the user device to the IoT device, wherein thetransmitting is performed in response to the connecting.
 3. The methodof claim 2, wherein the connecting is performed during an onboardingprocess of the IoT device.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein a user ofthe IoT device instructs the user device to capture the image of the IoTdevice during an onboarding process of the IoT device.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein a user of the IoT device instructs the user device tocapture the image of the IoT device during a configuration process ofthe IoT device.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmittingcomprises transmitting the image to the IoT device via an onboarderdevice.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at theuser device, an alert from the IoT device; receiving the image of theIoT device from the IoT device; and displaying the image at the userdevice.
 8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: requesting theimage of the IoT device in response to receiving the alert.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the user device, arequest from a user for information about the IoT device; and forwardingthe request to the IoT device.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: receiving information about the IoT device and the image ofthe IoT device from the IoT device; and displaying the information aboutthe IoT device and the image.
 11. A method for identifying an Internetof Things (IoT) device with an image of the IoT device, comprising:receiving, by the IoT device, the image of the IoT device from a userdevice, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at least a portionof an environment around the IoT device; storing the image of the IoTdevice; and associating the image of the IoT device with informationidentifying the IoT device.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the IoTdevice receives the image of the IoT device during an onboarding processof the IoT device.
 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the user deviceonboards the IoT device.
 14. The method of claim 11, wherein the IoTdevice receives the image of the IoT device during a configurationprocess of the IoT device.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the userdevice configures the IoT device.
 16. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising: sending, by the IoT device, an alert to the user device; andsending, by the IoT device, the image of the IoT device to the userdevice.
 17. The method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving, bythe IoT device, a request from the user device for information about theIoT device; and sending information about the IoT device and the imageof the IoT device to the user device.
 18. The method of claim 11,wherein the user device comprises a smartphone, a tablet computer, alaptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a desktopcomputer.
 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the IoT device comprises aheadless IoT device.
 20. An apparatus for identifying an Internet ofThings (IoT) device with an image of the IoT device, comprising: logicconfigured to capture, by a user device, the image of the IoT device,wherein the image of the IoT device includes at least a portion of anenvironment around the IoT device; and logic configured to transmit theimage from the user device to the IoT device, wherein the IoT deviceassociates the image with information identifying the IoT device. 21.The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the logic configured to transmitcomprises logic configured to transmit the image to the IoT device viaan onboarder device.
 22. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising:logic configured to receive, at the user device, an alert from the IoTdevice; logic configured to receive the image of the IoT device from theIoT device; and logic configured to display the image at the userdevice.
 23. The apparatus of claim 20, further comprising: logicconfigured to receive, by the user device, a request from a user forinformation about the IoT device; and logic configured to forward therequest to the IoT device.
 24. The apparatus of claim 23, furthercomprising: logic configured to receive information about the IoT deviceand the image of the IoT device from the IoT device; and logicconfigured to display the information about the IoT device and theimage.
 25. An apparatus for identifying an Internet of Things (IoT)device with an image of the IoT device, comprising: logic configured toreceive, by the IoT device, the image of the IoT device from a userdevice, wherein the image of the IoT device includes at least a portionof an environment around the IoT device; logic configured to store theimage of the IoT device; and logic configured to associate the image ofthe IoT device with information identifying the IoT device.
 26. Theapparatus of claim 25, wherein the IoT device receives the image of theIoT device during an onboarding process of the IoT device.
 27. Theapparatus of claim 25, wherein the IoT device receives the image of theIoT device during a configuration process of the IoT device.
 28. Theapparatus of claim 25, further comprising: logic configured to send, bythe IoT device, an alert to the user device; and logic configured tosend, by the IoT device, the image of the IoT device to the user device.29. The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising: logic configured toreceive, by the IoT device, a request from the user device forinformation about the IoT device; and logic configured to sendinformation about the IoT device and the image of the IoT device to theuser device.
 30. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the IoT devicecomprises a headless IoT device.